Expanding my Toolbox

Recently, I purchased a few new tools for my workspace (and brought out a few stashed ones) that have made a huge difference in my work.

1. Steel bench block, 4"x4" and 1/2" thick, polished smooth. This is absolutely necessary for metal manipulation, such as hammering soft wire. I set this on top of a piece of foam on my work table, and hammer away. Being able to flatten wire and make decorative dents (IN THE WIRE) has been an enormous amount of fun. MY FAVORITE NEW TOOL!

2. Tronex Razor Flush taper cutters for soft metal wire. These were $65 after shipping, but when one cuts a lot of wire, one should have top-of-the-line cutters. They're extremely pointy, too, so they can get into small spaces easily.

3. Dremel-type rotary tool with sanding bits. These bits are excellent for smoothing burrs at wire ends. I had the tool stashed away for about a year and a half, and never found a use for it until now.

4. Coiling Gizmo. This makes lovely coiled wire beads and tight, uniform wire coils to use in various designs. A useful tool for funking things up!! (So to speak...hee hee.)

Stuff I still want:

-small digital scale
-tumbler for stones and metals
-a better hammer
-metallic foils, for making large polymer clay beads

Adventures with Blue Artistic Wire

After a couple of months of letting it sit in my wire box, I finally decided to let the "ice blue" artistic wire come out and play. With colored wire, it makes sense to keep the crystal colors simple and monochromatic. Otherwise the design gets abrasive, at least to my eyes. Here's a bracelet I made recently.

The Ice Blue shade is much more of an aqua tone than photos suggest. I was hoping for a powdery mid-to-light blue. It does match well with my aqua crystals, and I have a huge collection of those.

Overall I like the look; it's very 1980's, very club-happy. I can see it being worn with sequins and shiny fabrics. It reminds me of blue-raspberry slushies and cotton candy.

Photo dump! Some recent work with semi-precious stones.

Chevron amethyst pendant. Also known as "dogtooth" amethyst. I found this beautiful flat stone in a new age bookstore. That's where I find the majority of my pendant stones, and this one has exceptional banding. For "silver" pendants, I use Artistic Wire; it is copper which is permanently plated with silver and protectively coated. It costs twice as much as plain copper, but still much more economical than sterling or silver-filled wires. I keep my costs down this way and keep my prices reasonable, while still having a nice product.

Deep, mossy greens with silver and light green crystal highlights. Moss agate necklace with fancy jasper ovals and a matching earring set. This is a simple strand that I find enjoyable to wear, especially with dark greens and earth tones. Black Moonstone pendant, strung with Botswana Agate, Cut Crystal beads and white Freshwater Pearls. I love the earthy tones in the agate; this necklace feels so polished and elegant. This picture was taken before I finished the ends and added my usual S-hook and eye clasp. 

Amethyst chip strand with freshwater mauve coin pearls and assorted cut crystal beads. I decided this would be the perfect strand to attach my rose quartz reiki stone to! A few months ago, I wire-wrapped the pink disc with silver-filled wire. The clasp is handmade from silver-filled wire. 

A note on clasps: My default clasp is an S-hook with a figure-8 eye. It fastens very easily and holds well, plus it's pretty. 

Juliet comments, "this looks like something a mermaid let slip off!" I think she's referring to the watery transparent green of the fluorite nuggets and the soft sheen of the white freshwater pearls. The small green beads are aventurine. 

This was a present for my mother's birthday; she's an Aquarius, February-born, so amethyst is her birthstone.  I just liked how the chips complemented the large nuggets, and pearls made more suitable spacers than silver rounds would have.  

A simple earthy jasper strand. Red jasper nuggets with little fancy jasper round beads, separated by silver round beads. Not a lot of fanfare with this necklace, but sometimes you just want something really simple to wear around your neck, and this does the trick quite well. 

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Sodalite chunky pendant. 

Thulite pendant. I'd never heard of thulite until I picked this up in a bookstore a couple of weeks ago!

White moonstone. This one has a cool cast, so I used silver Artistic wire.

Amazonite, probably Russian. I love these irregular shapes, they're relatively easy to wrap.

Dumortierite pendant, on a necklace of blue goldstone and clear quartz chips. Reminds me a little bit of sailors. ;) I love dumortierite, such a lovely deep reserved blue. 

 More Amethyst! Committedly purple, and very chunky, not for the faint of heart.

 

Tiny red tiger eye pendant with copper wrapping. Or possibly an infant bootie. No, definitely too tiny to be an infant bootie. 

Leopardskin jasper. Some call this one "The PTSD Stone" because it soothes deep terror and anxiety. I love the patterning of it. This nugget was oddly shaped and as such it has a purely functional wire wrap.

I love this carnelian pendant! The stone is an odd, rounded shape and rather small, but it had such a lovely color and such nice white banding on the bottom that I had to try wrapping it. Artistic Wire was just right in terms of flexibility, and I was able to make it work. This is my favorite of all the pendants. (Don't tell the others!!)